“I was under a lot of stress and pressure to perform well. I was having a lot of trouble, and my intellect had given up entirely.
She claimed that in order to write one of the essays, she resorted to artificial intelligence (AI) because to her desperation and the pain she was experiencing from COVID-19.
Now, Hannah—not her real name—is alerting people to the possible repercussions of using generative AI to cheat in college.
An academic misconduct tribunal, which has the authority to remove students who are caught cheating, heard her case.
Her story demonstrates the difficulty colleges have in discouraging cheating while simultaneously pushing students to become AI literate.
Her lecturer regularly used detection software to check Hannah’s essay, which led to the discovery of her abuse of AI.
I was sitting outside the office with my guts in knots, she added. I thought, ‘This was incredibly stupid’.
Despite Hannah’s admission of employing AI, a panel decided there wasn’t enough evidence to convict her, and she was cleared.
According to Hannah, she believes it was a slap on the wrist intended to warn other pupils.
